A-MAIZE-ING Tortillas

Sustainable Agriculture, or as I call it “FARM”, is by far my favorite class, and it never fails to be the highlight of my day. This might sound a little corn-y, but this past Friday was the true peak of my entire week. Our class had the honor of making homemade tortillas from the corn grown in Mrs. Doherty's own farm!

The tortilla making process can be a long one especially if you don’t know what you’re doing. Thankfully, Mrs. Doherty dedicated her time to teaching our class how to properly rinse and prepare the corn kernels into the proper tortilla texture. For this experiment we used Cherokee White Eagle Corn: a Native American plant.

The class worked together at a number of different stations in preparation for making the tortillas:

First off, we had to wash and rub the kernels in between our hands 10 times until the excess seed coating was cleaned off. (This was my table groups’ job!)The next step was putting the kernels in a grinding machine until it became a coarse powdery texture.

After that, students made little balls out of the tortilla mix, roughly about 2 inches thick. The tortilla balls were flattened in a press in between two sheets of plastic. The plastic ensured that the tortillas wouldn't break apart.

The last and final step was heating the tortillas!

At the end of all our hard work (and clean–up) we finally got to taste the tortillas. There was a picnic style set-up with two types of homemade beans, cheese, tomatoes, cilantro, and red onion. All these toppings made the perfect filling for the tortillas. Let me tell you, they were by far the most a-MAIZE-ing tortillas I’ve ever eaten!!! Not only were they fresh, but they were also organic, and they were 100% natural! It’s so cool eating food that you produce yourself, and this cooking experience was so much fun!

***Don’t forget that this Friday, January 30^th is our Farmers Market Day from 2:20-3:20 pm! We will be located in front of the school by the office. Be sure not to miss it because you’ll have to wait a whole month before you have another chance to buy the freshest produce out there!!!

By: Tavi Chaimongkol